Kolkata: A petition was heard in the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday on elephant deaths in south Bengal and the jumbos being hounded by hulla parties who use spears and fireballs.
Counsel for the petitioner also submitted before the division bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya about an incident on July 1 last year, where an elephant died after being lifted and also about a recent incident this Aug where a jumbo was lifted and left somewhere not known to them.The counsel also referred to the death of an elephant in south Bengal chased by hulla parties this Aug.
The petitioner’s counsel drew the court’s attention to the submission by the state before the SC in 2018 where it had stated that the state would not allow hulla parties, spears or fireballs while capturing a jumbo.
The counsel in reference to the Calcutta High Court division bench order on July 18, 2023, mentioned that this bench had ordered the chief conservator of forest, West Bengal, and the chief wildlife warden to submit a report on an incident relating to the capture of an elephant in south Bengal. “A report by the DFO was submitted to the court mentioning about annexures such as the warrant issued by the chief wildlife warden, the post mortem report. But the documents have not been handed over to petitioner,” the counsel said.
The counsel prayed before the division bench to direct the state counsel copies of the warrant, post mortem report, names of persons arrested to enable them file an exception to the report.
Counsel for the petitioner argued that wild elephants coming to south Bengal are not rogue. “They get angry only when someone tries to block their way,” he said. He also urged the division bench to add Stripes and Green Earth, an NGO, as a party to the case as it had done enough groundwork on man-animal conflict in south Bengal.
The bench directed the state counsel to hand over documents attached as annexures in the DFO report to the petitioner and fixed the next hearing on Sept 24.